The National Bureau of Statistics said retail sales in January-February totaled 2 trillion yuan ($294 billion), up 15.2 percent from a year earlier but down from 17.4 percent growth in December.
China did not report separate figures for each of the first two months, citing potential distortions from the Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in February last year and in late January this year.
Beijing is spending billions of dollars to stimulate consumer spending, especially in the countryside.
But consumers are growing increasingly uneasy over the economic outlook, researchers said in a report released this week.
A Shanghai-based market research group, DDMA, said its survey in February found that 45 percent of those polled had cut back on spending, down from 7 percent in January.
"Economic concerns are now very much ensconced at the top of the list of most important consumer concerns," the group said in a statement.
